Cities, municipalities, and other government entities commonly have locations in their road systems that are prone to accidents and traffic issues. These “hot spots” may be caused by inadequate design of traffic control structures (e.g., issues from signal lights, speed limits, inadequately marked road features, and the like), inadequate roadway design (e.g., inadequate intersection flow, inadequate acceleration or merge lanes, or improperly engineered surfaces), or correctable environmental factors (e.g., limited driver visibility due to trees, buildings, and the like).
The private or public authority that manages the road system may have limited knowledge of these problem locations, and will generally only focus remedial efforts at known locations of serious accidents or significant traffic congestion. Thus, analysis and modifications to the existing features of a road system is often only conducted after data is compiled from easily identifiable and well-documented events or traffic conditions.